


Dracula for a New Age

by Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts



Series: Short and Sweet Movie Reviews [2]
Category: Dracula Untold (2014), Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:35:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22381924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts/pseuds/Littlebluejay_hidingpeanuts
Summary: Movie review of Dracula Untold
Series: Short and Sweet Movie Reviews [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1611136
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Dracula for a New Age

“Dracula Untold” has a poetry to it. It is telling the story of an enduring romance between Dracula and his wife. Though he does everything to protect his son, heaven forbid we actually see whether he looks out for his son from afar once Dracula sends him away to rule Transylvania. There is an unanswered plot line of the “original” vampire and the original vampire’s “betrayer” or maker. There are beautiful visuals and Dracula certainly makes an impression with that hair. He’s gorgeous and romantic and sorrowful, but strong. The story follows closely the true story of Dracula as a prince of Transylvania who fought for the Turks, though they do not mention his younger brother that I believe he had who stayed with the turks. Dracula returned home, but then had to pay homage to the turks, he fought them off when they became too demanding. The movie says he became a vampire to protect his people. Personally his powers made him a bit op, but they managed to balance this by making him a beginner, thus he has to work out what his abilities are and how to use them to his benefit. One thing I find irritating is the use of silver as a weakness to vampires. They explain that the sun hurts them because they are punished to forever remain in the dark because they are creatures of the night, yet I never heard of any night creature being burned by the sun. But the silver, they never explain why it burns them, but they do use this attribute in a unique way. So, Dracula has to pay tribute. He pays in silver coins emblazoned with Dracula’s profile. I do think they could have used Vlad’s name more and more casually just to show how normal it was. But the silver coins are then used against Dracula by the Turkish sultan to weaken him. The biggest thing was after this great story leading up to Dracula’s “death” we skip forward in time to modern times, sort of, and Dracula re-meets Marinna as Mina. What did he do in between all that time? Why is he still holding onto that love? People, human people, are widowed all the time, and they find new love. Not to mention, he has hundreds of years of experience over her. If you met the reincarnation of your beloved, you would adore them, but build up a new romance with them, probably not. You would watch over them, care for them. You would think fondly of them, but the amount of separation between Dracula and Mina would make for a difficult relationship, not to mention how Dracula seems to be almost waiting for her to show up as if he expects her. The ending sets up for a sequel to end the battle of good and evil. The original vampire wants to use Dracula to get back at his betrayer. There is also a three day period in which Dracula has to abstain from blood or else turn into a vampire for eternity. He fails of course at the behest of his wife who lies dying begging him to save their son. The three days probably comes from the crucifixion or from an old vampire myth that says it takes three days in the ground for a vampire to turn which probably comes from the crucifixion as well now that I think of it. All in all (cliche phrase), “Dracula Untold” is a good film, a solid film. It tells a strong story which is full of detail. The best part is that though the main character is stuck in the night most of the time, it is not a black and blue movie. Everything is visible except for the few parts of pitch darkness that are there as major plot points like to show how the original vampire and then Dracula can seen the blood and heart beats of living creatures at night and over distances. Everything else has either sunlight, another light source, or sometimes an unknown or ambiguous light source, but still being able to see the action is truly great. Really a good movie. Not as indulgent with color as with “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, but this is understandable as the story is meant to be closer to history than fantasy, so the colors are more natural. And the movie has a strong story about the “do the ends justify the means” idea. In this case they do, to save the sons of Transylvania, to save his own son, to use the skills the Turks taught him to protect his people, he needs to be a vampire. And it is Dracula’s powerful nature which enables him to last so long without drinking blood and that which enables him to keep himself instead of turning into a mindless, hungry animal. This movie shows his struggle to win a losing battle. He either loses to the Turks or he loses himself to the hunger and loses himself. Ultimately, he loses himself to the hunger, but manages to stay himself. At least it seems that way.


End file.
